You are not incarcerated

So much for the conventional start of work week moping. The other end of the spectrum? Remind yourself how much your life doesn’t suck. James Stockdale was a Vietnam prisoner of war for seven years. From his Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot:

“When you’re alone and afraid and feel your culture is slipping away even though you’re hanging on to your memories—memories of language, of poetry, of prayers, of mathematics—hanging on with your fingernails as best you can and yet, despite all your efforts, still seeing the bottom of the barrel coming up to meet you and realising how thin and fragile our veneer of culture is, when you suddenly realise the truth that we all can become animals when cast adrift and tormented for a mere matter of months, you start having some very warm thoughts about the only life preserver within reach—that human mind, that human heart next door. You become unashamed to say what you mean when your pal is being taken out for torture for being caught trying to get a message to you. You tap “God bless you, Jerry” or perhaps “I love you Jerry.””